- (Bloomberg) -- Bombings today in Iraq left five U.S.
soldiers dead and three British soldiers injured, military spokeswomen
said. In Fallujah, west of Baghdad, four contractors for the U.S.-led coalition
were killed in an attack on their two- vehicle convoy, U.S officials said.
-
- The nationalities of the victims and the company they
were working for wasn't disclosed in a military briefing televised from
Baghdad. Coalition spokesman Dan Senor said their bodies were pulled from
the vehicles, and he referred to television images that showed Iraqis dragging
them through the streets.
-
- The U.S. soldiers were attacked as they rode in a military
vehicle in Al-Anbar province, west of the capital, Baghdad, a U.S. military
spokeswoman said by telephone from Baghdad. The U.K. soldiers were hurt
southwest of the city of Basra, in the south, a spokeswoman for the Ministry
of Defense said in a telephone interview in London. Details on the attacks
weren't available, said the spokeswomen, who declined to be identified.
-
- The contractors in Fallujah were in two four-wheel-drive
vehicles when they were attacked by gunmen and the vehicles set on fire,
the Associated Press said.
-
- At least one corpse was beaten with a pole, another dragged
from a car and two were hanging from a bridge, AP said. Some were dismembered.
A U.S. passport and a U.S. military identification card from different
men were found nearby. The AP said as many as six foreigners and one American
were killed.
-
- Fallujah also is in al-Anbar province, which takes in
part of the so-called Sunni Triangle, a focus of anti-U.S. sentiment by
Sunni Muslims loyal to ousted President Saddam Hussein.
-
- At least four police officers and six civilians were
hurt in a car bombing today in Baquba, north of Baghdad, and also in the
Sunni Triangle, Agence France-Presse said, citing police.
-
- The death of the five Americans in the bombing brings
to 291 the total number of U.S. military personnel killed in hostilities
in Iraq since U.S. President George W. Bush declared the end of major combat
operations on May 1. Three months remain before the U.S. is scheduled to
transfer power to a civilian Iraqi administration.
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